News from our partners: SaTH among first in country to have new Nursing Associates
News from our partners Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH)
The Trust which runs Shropshire’s two acute hospitals has become one of the first in the country to have new registered Nursing Associates.
Nursing Associates
Julie Deans, Karley Hall, Elaine Powell, Amy Speake and Karla Vaughan have just qualified as Nursing Associates at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) making them some of very first registered Nursing Associates in England.
SaTH, which runs the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford and the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, has been involved in national pilot project to develop the role of the Nursing Associate, which began in January 2017 in partnership with the University of Wolverhampton.
The Nursing Associate is a new standalone generic nursing role in England which bridges the gap between healthcare support workers and registered nurses to deliver hands-on, person-centred care. They are members of the nursing “family” who gain a Nursing Associate Foundation Degree awarded by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).
The role has been introduced to help build the capacity of the nursing workforce and the delivery of high-quality care, while supporting nurses and wider multidisciplinary teams to focus on more complex clinical duties.
During a two-year programme, SaTH’s Nursing Associates gained experience in a number of different clinical areas and settings, both inside and external to the Trust, which provided them with a wide range of skills, knowledge, and experience to support them in their roles as qualified registrants.
Helen Jenkinson, Deputy Director of Nursing and Quality at SaTH, said:-
“We are proud to be one of the first Trust’s in the country to have qualified Nursing Associates.
“All of our new Nursing Associates were employed as Health Care Assistants (HCAs) in the Trust before they started the programme, and this has provided them with an excellent opportunity to progress their careers.
“We want to take this opportunity to congratulate our Nursing Associates. We are immensely proud of their achievements and success. They have worked tirelessly to achieve their qualification and are a credit to themselves and to their profession.
“We know that they are going to make a significant impact on the care of our patients and are pioneers in taking forward this new and exciting role. We wish them all the best in the future and look forward to following their career progression.”
The Trust has subsequently recruited an additional 43 of its own HCAs to undertake the Nursing Associate programme in three further cohorts – two of which are in partnership with Staffordshire University.
